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Inventive Treviglas students win national science prize

Monday 27th March 2017

On 15th – 18th March 2017 at the Big Bang Science Fair and Competition National Finals, students from Treviglas won the national prize in the ‘Building Future Communities’ category and were highly commended for their recycled vertical axis wind turbine to power lighting and irrigation systems at the Treviglas Community Nature Garden in the college grounds.

The students, who have been attending Science Club, have been working on the project for 2 years and, following their success at the Regional Finals at Exeter University last June, won a place in the National finals in the NEC in Birmingham. The students have spent this year eagerly developing their research and ideas from the previous year, and built a two metre tall wind turbine out of recycled material donated by Newquay Household Recycling Centre. This is used to create electrical energy stored in 2 solar batteries donated be Western Power Distribution ltd.

A small team from the Science Club, consisting of Charlie Bolton, Ella Harbon, Bertie Greenslade, Mathew Old and Joel Armstrong, travelled to Birmingham last Tuesday to prepare for several rounds of judging on Wednesday and Thursday. At the red carpet awards ceremony on Thursday evening, the students were rewarded for all their hard work, with the science prize for the project that best builds future communities, sponsored by MWH Consultancy Ltd, as well as being highly commended in the category for protecting the environment, sponsored by Air Products Ltd.

The Treviglas project concept was the development and building of a recycled, renewable energy source for the college’s Community Nature Garden using a vertical axis wind turbine to generate electrical energy to supply lighting and irrigation systems for the remote Nature garden used by the whole community.

The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition aims to recognise and reward young people’s achievements in all areas of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and provide them with the opportunity to build their skills and confidence in project-based work. Charlie Bolton, a Year 11 student, said, “It was amazing; we had a great time, but were nervous when the judges came around and asked lots of very difficult questions. It was a long way to go, but worth it to come back with a National Science Prize!”

Mr. Neil Payne, science teacher at the college, said, “Having competed as a sixth form student in this competition, and run a display for the RAF at the Big Bang Fair, it was a privilege to take a team of students from Treviglas to the NEC and see them win a national prize for all of their hard work and effort. They all performed exceptionally well in front of the judges and did the college proud.”